The Internet Watch Foundation reports record levels of child sexual abuse webpages in their Annual Data and Insights Report

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, published their Annual Data and Insights Report this month and revealed a spike in sexual abuse imagery of teenagers under 18. Young people are increasingly being targeted through AI, grooming, coerced sexual extortion and leaked imagery attacks. 

In response, the IWF launched a new safety tool, Image Intercept, which will provide smaller online platforms and start-ups free access to the charity’s database of 2,883,015 individual hashes of child sexual abuse imagery, a move that will protect thousands of sites from millions of criminal content.  

Image Intercept has been developed through funding support from the Home Office and is the first such initiative operating free of charge in the UK. The tool will help small companies achieve, or go beyond, the safety aims set out under the Online Safety Act. 

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